SB.TV founder Jamal Edwards confirms Apple Music partnership

The 25-year-old will create playlists highlighting the best in established and emerging talent in the UK

11/11/2015 02:35 PM

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PARTNERSHIP: Jamal Edwards MBE

SB.TV FOUNDER Jamal Edwards MBE will join a roster of high-profile names on Apple Music after confirming he has joined forces with the global brand.

The self-made millionaire, 25, who was honoured by the Queen in March for his services to music, will curate playlists of songs on Apple Music, highlighting the best in established and emerging talent.

Edwards, who is credited with revolutionising he UK music scene and discovering some of the biggest talent, says he is “excited” about the new partnership.

“We are all about supporting talent regardless of an act’s current popularity or hype, and we are seeing this with Apple Music’s curator playlists, which are doing great work spotlighting new and untapped music talent,” he said.

“We have a global following but our new Apple Music channel will be a great opportunity to magnify the reach of the artists we support. We wanted to kick things off with a playlist, which paid homage to the pioneers. Dizzee, Bruza and Choong Family were all influential in the early 2000’s and it’s great to be able to include them in our first Apple Music Playlist.”

East London MC, Dizzee Rascal, who was name-checked in Edwards’ announcement, said it was “important to look back and celebrate the people that laid the foundations, as well as embracing the future”.

He said: “It’s great that SBTV have included me in their first Apple Music playlist, it’s good to see they are spotlighting acts from the early 2000’s that were influential and helped shaped the UK scene in to what it is today.”

Dubbed the 'Simon Cowell of grime music', Edwards founded SB.TV, named after his rapping moniker Smokey Barz, in 2006 as a platform to push the UK grime scene.

Talking to The Voice last year about his success, Edwards said “self-belief is the main ingredient" to his success.

He said: “I'm a rebel at heart. When people say 'no' I do it anyway because I know I can. That's why self-belief is so important.”

He added: "With so much negativity around us it's hard sometimes to stay positive and fight for your dreams. When I started my YouTube channel I was working at Topman, I worked there for four years investing in myself. The world won't help you, I learnt that early, you have to help yourself, you have to invest [in] yourself to better your life."

To celebrate their new deal with Apple, SBTV launched their first playlist titled, Ready To Pair: Bluetooth Classics, which takes users through tracks that shaped the sound of the UK in the early 2000s, including Roots Manuva, So Solid Crew and Skepta. From today, SBTV can be found on the ‘Curator Playlists’ section in the ‘New’ tab on Apple Music.

Apple Music, an all-in-one app for discovering, listening to and sharing music, is set to rival Spotify and Jay Z’s new venture, Tidal.

When asked if he was joining Apple’s streaming service in June, the young entrepreneur told Business Insider he had "no comment", saying that he has signed a "strict NDA".

Earlier this month, former Rinse FM presenter Julie Adenuga, the sister of UK rappers Skepta and JME was revealed as one of the names to front the company’s hugely-anticipated Beats 1 radio station.

Adenuga joins former BBC radio DJ Zane Lowe alongside other famous DJs from Los Angeles, New York and London such as Ebro Darden on the company’s new 24-hour global radio station.

Posted on: 11/11/2015 02:35 PM

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